Current status of heart replacement.
A review of heart replacement involves discussion of the artificial heart and the cardiac homograft. The mechanical substitute shows destruction of blood cellular elements and clot formation, regardless of the type of pump used. Significant postoperative survival remains as the major goal. Animals having homograft substitutions show prolonged survival and good cardiac function. Philosophical and legal problems rank above the rejection phenomenon in curtailing clinical isotopic replacement.
D001187:Artificial Organs; D016027:Heart Transplantation; D006801:Humans; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous